Travel and Personal

Lake Naivasha

By Dweep Chanana ⋅ November 25, 2005 ⋅  Email this post ⋅ Post a comment

Last weekend was my first trip outside Nairobi - to Lake Naivasha, Hell’s Gate National Park, and Crater Lake. What do I remember?

The first view of the Great Rift Valley! Aptly named, a great dry rift extending out to infinity from the green highlands around Nairobi. The first view will always surprise.

The spectacular Mt. Longonot rising from nothing to a razor sharp peak and crater rim. Expectation at eventually climbing it.

The dust! Everywhere. Wanting to take a shower after 1 hour on what passed for a road between Naivasha town and the Lake. A popular tourist getaway from Nairobi, I wonder why that 10 km stretch of road is not better!

The wildlife. Three ostriches right inside Hell’s Gate NP. Further down the path were rock hyraxes, zebras, gazelles, buffaloes, giraffes, wildebeast, and wild boars. Wildlife - at a manageable scale. Yet, the elation was mixed with exhaustion at the landscape - dry, and tiring to the eyes, after a full day.

The gorge, disappointing for its small size, and for not having the promised hot spring at the end of it. The gorge is 8km from the gate - which we biked. Then, the short tour through the gorge is a 1-2 hour walk. We never made it beyond, to Hell - the main hot springs. That is a 3-4 hour circuit.

And the Masaai, much romanticized. Our little guide was a Masaai, a child of 10 hearding his sheep and goats in Hell’s Gate gorge. From another Masaai we learnt they don’t eat wild beasts. Ironically, then, it is the tourists that threaten these animals - not the masaai that live there permanently.

Most of all, the people - friendly to the last. The little child that was our guide inside Hell’s Gate, who jumped from rock to rock unconcerned while we treaded carefully and slowly in the water. The cab driver that haggled with me for 15 minutes but took me to Crater Lake through a private gate and showed me around. The man that helped me take the matatu back to Nairobi and made sure I got off at the right spot.